China Confirms Toddler Infected With Bird Flu

A two-year-old girl is in critical condition at a hospital in northern China after becoming infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media said on Sunday, the second case in China in as many weeks.

The girl, surnamed Peng, was found ill on January 7 in central Hunan Province and taken to a hospital in her home province of Shanxi on January 11, Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed official with the provincial health department.

The Health Ministry did not say how the girl had become infected. There have not been any reports of outbreaks of the virus among birds in Hunan since May 2007.